School At Home: Okay Or No?

[Riley]

My brother and (sometimes; rarely) my 8-year old niece LOVE to remind me of the fact that I'm "homeschooled." The former to point out how no one likes me and I can't be around normal people or something along those lines. The latter to back-up/justify calling me "stupid."

Mom insists what I do (Taking classes at home on my laptop) isn't what that's called. Don't know the proper term.

I started James Madison High after 8th grade, I think. Had a short fuse around certain student antics. Is that okay or no?

 

[Ronin82]

I was home-schooled at my request. I couldn't handle the social stuff, the atmosphere was too overly stimulating, and I was so far ahead of the pace for work I was bored at public schools. Mom and Dad let me pick out my own curriculum, and I basically taught myself. I do wish there were more opportunities for social things when I was schooling myself, but there weren't at the time. Being home-schooled is fine, colleges have started to appreciate the fact that we tend to be MORE likely to succeed in college. Home-schoolers tend to be more intelligent, more capable of critical thinking, problem solving, and independent study than public school students. There are always exceptions, and I don't mean to offend anyone, but the statistics and research on this topic state these facts.

If you are enrolled in a public/private/charter school and just do the work from home, then you are not home-schooled, but simply a "non-traditional student" I believe is the term.

 

[toothless]

i think homeschooling is the best idea for some autistics, it takes away a lot of the challenges and allows you to grow up at your own pace.
it just wouldnt have worked for some of us, i was to challenging and submerged in my own world to have had my parents home school me,i needed specialist schooling the one i went to changed my life but i still got expelled from it at 15 for challenging behavior and was never found another placement,i sat down at the PC 24/7 i was so submerged in this learning- i taught myself advanced PC skills,linux,penetration testing and grey hat hacking, so see;you dont need school in the physical sense to home school,youve just got to want to learn.

 

[midlife aspie]

I think homeschooling is a notch lower than private school and better than public school in terms of educational quality. The public schools in more affluent smaller communities are good if one is lucky enough to be able to attend them. Public schools in large, less affluent cities or areas absolutely stink. I generally consider seeing a metal detector at school entrances to be a singularly bad sign, and combine that with a resident security officer, and my instincts scream "Stay out of this place!" I will not consider for a moment sending my children to such places. Peoria District 150 is such a system. The real problem is distribution of wealth. Wealthy communities have richer tax bases which translate into more school funding. People in areas dominated by poverty do not have the means to support schools and since such areas are undesirable to those with better means, the property values tend to be low, further reducing tax revenue. The children living in the poor areas tend to get locked into a sad cycle of poor education, poor prospects, and exposure to crime. I feel that better, more centralized, and coordinated public school funding, at say, the state or provincial level as opposed to the local, with oversight, would help.

 

[paloftoon]

The proper term is "cyber school." Most cyber schools do have social events- so if you family can, try to attend as many of those as you can. You can still socialize by looking for events off of meetup.com and community centers. No, it's not the same as going to a brick and mortar, but the "socialization" in a brick and mortar is honestly a distraction from your learning your school work. Work on completing and advancing ahead of your brick and mortar peers in your cyber school. The socialization can always be picked up later on, and gets easier when you have more knowledge generally speaking.

I used to be a cyber school teacher myself at 2 cyber schools. I loved teaching at both. Feel free to ask me more questions, and PM me if I don't notice your question(s) for like a few days with the thread link.